Fruity Plumcake!

Special plumcake made with fruit yogurt and choccolate as well!

Indredients:

180 gr sugar

180 gr flour 00

250 ml yogurt (strawberry)

2 eggs

1 yeast

50 gr butter (soften)

salt

3 tbls of cocoa

Mix the egss with the sugar.

Add in the remaining indredients, but the cocoa, you will use the cocoa powder later,

the yogurt must be added at the very end.

Take 4 tablespoons of your mixture, place the in a bowl.

Add in the cocoa pwder and mix very well.

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degress.

Place half of the "white-clear" the mixture in a plumcake pan

add the "cocoa" mixture in the middle,

top if off with the remaining "white-clear" mixture and place in the pre-heated oven.

Keep an eye on it, cook for 10 minutes them turn the temperature at 150 degress. Bake it for 10 more minutes at 100 degrees.

Spiced Minced Meat in pastry

Looks good, doesn't It ? It is a main dish, does not take long to make and is super delicious!

Ingredients:

Filling:

200 gr miced meat

spices ( thyme, pepper )

extravirgin olive oil

1 slice of bacon, 1 cm high

half onion

cheese ( 3 slices )

salt

Wrapper:

100 gr of flour

salt

extravirging olive oil

yeast ( 5 gr )

Prepare a dough with the flour, salt, water, yeast. Exactly like you would do for plain simple bread. Let it rise for 1 hour.

Slice the onion thinly.Put in in a frying pan with hot oil, chop the bacon slice into dices.

Let the onion soften up and become very golden.

In the meantime place the minced meat in a bowl.

Add in the salt, pepper, spices, 2 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil.

At the end add in the fried bacon and onion slices.

Mix very well, make a firm dough.

When the bread dough is ready, flat it out with a rolling pin.

Place in on a tray with baking paper.

Take your miced meat dough and spread half of it on the pastry.

Flat in out a little.

take your 3 slices of cheese and lay them on the center.

Take the remaing minced meat dough and place it on top of the cheese.

Flat it out and kind of seal the border, this will prevent the melted cheese to drip out with cooking.

Wrap the minced meat dough with the pastry, leave an opening on the top. This will let steam out and your meat will cook properly.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees.

Must be pink-ish in the middle with a golden pastry crust.

Enjoy with fries :-)

Cheese & Chili Biscuits

I made this special biscuits in feb, as a Valentine's Day pressie for a few dear friends. Very easy to make and super yummy to eat! They go very well with cold-cuts, as an appetizer.

Ingredients:
100 gr of grated parmigiano cheese

180 gr of flour

120 gr of soft butter

1 teaspoon of powder chili ( or pepper )
1 egg

salt

In a bowl mix well the butter with the grated cheese.

Add in the flour, salt and chili.

Stir well and add in the egg.

Knead the mixture till you get a smooth dough.

Place the dough in the fridge for at least 120 mins.

After 2 hours, place the dough on some baking paper and using a rolling pin flatten the dough out a little, till you get a thick layer ( 1 cm - 1,2 cm ).

Cut it into pieces by using the shapes you prefer. (use a biscuit cutter)

Place your savory biscuits in a pre-heated oven ( 160 degrees ).

Keep an eye on them, they must be golden on top and on the bottom, but be carefull not to let them burn, it will spoil the taste completely.

Please note: they need to cool down at least for 30 mins in order to get firm.

Enjoy with a good wine :-)

PS: I got this recepe from Chicca, check it out here

Chioccolates...make your own !

This is something you MUST do at least once in your life ! :-) make your own choccolates for a special occasion. I've used an ice-tray from IKEA, heart shaped.

This is what I've used....

• 200 gr of dark choccolate
• 100 gr white choccolate
• 2 tablespoons of rhum
• 50 gr of smashed walnuts
• 80 gr of butter

Melt 120 gr of dark choccolate in bain marie ( double boiler ).

Pour the melted choccolate into each "cube" ( lets call them cubes, even though mine where hearts....you can use any-other shape! )....

Make sure you cover completely the sides of the cubes, do not fill the cubes till their top, the choccolates must be on its sides and bottom.

Place in the freezer for 30 mins.

In the meantime melt the white choccolate in bain marie, add the butter,the rhum and the walnuts.

Leave it to cool down a little.

Take your ice-tray out of the freezer.

Fill in each cube with the melted white choccolate.

NOTE: fill in almost to its top, leave a 1-2 mm gap.

Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime melt 80 gr of dark choccolate in bain marie.

Take the ice-tray out of the freezer.

Cover each cube with the melted dark choccolate, use a spatula to level it.

Place in the freezer for 1 hour.

You must be very carefull when makeing your cubes pop out the tray, they are very delicate !

Garnished Focaccia Bread

Dont you find this very yummy ? I garnished my focaccia bread ( thick one ) with slices of potatoes and courgettes, but also with fresh tomatoes slices.

Here's what you have to do to make your own....

500 gr flour

25 gr fresh yeast

salt

water

extravirgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of sugar

Melt the fresh yeast with some warm water and 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Place in your mixer the flour, add in the melted yeast and 4 tablespoons of extravirgin olive oil.

Mix well, add in the salt.

(remember not to add in the salt while adding in the yeast, this will prevent your dough to rise properly !!).

Form a firm smooth dough and let it rise till it will double its size.

Place the dough into a round tray with a high border.

Press it gently down a little, spread it till it reaches the border of the tray.

Leave it rise a little bit more, at least 40 mins, in a very warm place.

Take your tray, and with your fingertips, apply some pressure on the dough.

Sprinkle some olive oil, salt.

Now you can garnish it with potatoes slices and anything else you like.

Please note that potatoes slices must be boiled for 5 mins before laying them down on your focaccia bread.

Sprinkle some thyme on top and place your tray in the oven, preheated at 180 degrees. Leave it in there for 25 mins, it must be golden and soft-looking. Crust must be slightly more brownish.

Enjoy !

Porcini Mushroom Bread

This is a ever-so-easy recipe ! First of all there is nothing difficult to do, just follow the recipe for Milk Bread, the only thing you must do differently is add some dried porcini mushrooms into the dough mixture.

Take a handful of dried porcini mushrooms.

Place them into a glass filled up with hot water.

Leave them in there for 15 mins.

Drain them out, kind of squeeze them as well into your hand.

Place them onto a chopping board and chop them finely.



Add them in into the mixture used to prepare Milk bread.


NB: I did not take the porcini mushrooms' picture linked above.

Tiny Pesto Rolls

Having a finger food night? Well....prepare these small rolls then ! Follow the recipe for Milk Bread and add Pesto sauce in the dough ! The flavour is just so-oooo good :-)